The Intel Core i9-9900KS Special Edition Review: 5.0 GHz on All the Cores, All the Time
Tom’s Hardware Verdict
Intel’s Core i9-9900K unlocks the ultimate in gaming performance, and the highly-binned chips also increase your chances of getting a highly-overclockable chip right out of the box. Just be prepared to pay a premium at retail for the limited-edition chip.
Pros
- +
Gaming Performance
- +
All-Core 5.0 GHz at stock settings
- +
Overclocking headroom
- +
Power consumption improvements
- +
Compatible with 300-series motherboards
- +
Solder TIM
Cons
- —
One-year warranty
- —
Price
- —
PCIe 3.0
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Intel’s Core i9-9900K sits atop the desktop PC gaming throne with leading performance in a wide range of games, allowing Intel to dominate the sliver of the ultra-high-end processor market where it remains uncontested in raw performance by AMD’s competing Ryzen 3000 processors. That earns is a spot on our list of Best CPUs.
Intel designed its new Core i9-9900KS Special Edition to take things one step further by taking the best silicon from its -9900K manufacturing line to create a new halo part specifically for gamers and streamers that boosts to 5.0 GHz on all cores. Surprisingly, Intel only assigns a $513-$524 recommended price for the chips, which is a relatively slim $25 premium over the standard -9900K models.
Given the blistering-fast performance we found in our tests, that pricing would equate to a wonderful deal if you could find the chip at recommended levels, but we fully expect retailers to take advantage of the limited availability (the KS is only available until the end of the year) and charge a premium.
For enthusiasts and gamers that don’t want to deal with the hassles of overclocking, or for extreme overclockers looking for that last drop of performance, the Core i9-9900KS is unquestionably the new leader in gaming performance at both stock and overclocked settings.
The gaming performance delta between the -9900KS and competing chips is often substantial enough that gaming enthusiasts looking for the absolute most performance, regardless of price, will seek out the processor.
AMD isn’t sitting still though: The company recently released its own new flagship, the 16-core 32-thread Ryzen 9 3950X, to fend off Intel’s new challengers. That chip isn’t as fast at gaming as the Core i9-9900KS, but it does bring competitive gaming performance and much more threaded horsepower.
- Intel Core i9-9900KS (Intel Core i9) at Amazon for $1,989
Intel Core i9-9900KS Special Edition Specifications
Swipe to scroll horizontally
| Header Cell — Column 0 | Process | SEP / RCP (USD) | Cores / Threads | TDP (Watts) | Base Frequency (GHz) | Total Cache (MB) | PCIe Lanes | iGPU | Price Per Thread |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ryzen 9 3900X | 7nm | $499 | 12 / 24 | 105W | 3. 5 / 4.7 |
32 | 24 Gen4 | No | $20.79 |
| Core i9-9900KS | 14nm | $513 | 8 / 16 | 127W | 4.0 / 5.0 | 16 | 16 Gen3 | Yes | $32 |
| Core i9-9900K | 14nm | $488 | 8 / 16 | 95W | 3.6 / 5.0 | 16 | 16 Gen3 | Yes | $30.05 |
| Ryzen 7 3800X | 7nm | $399 | 8 / 16 | 105W | 3.9 / 4. 5 |
32 | 24 Gen4 | No | $24.94 |
| Core i9-9700K | 14nm | $374 | 8 / 8 | 95W | 3.6 / 4.9 | 12 | 16 Gen3 | Yes | $46.75 |
| Ryzen 7 3700X | 7nm | $329 | 8 / 16 | 65W | 3.6 / 4.4 | 32 | 24 Gen4 | No | $20.56 |
In short, the Core i9-9900KS is identical in nearly every fashion to the Core i9-9900K. The KS features the same 14nm++ process and Coffee Lake architecture as the standard Core i9-9900K, so it sports the same feature set, like dual-channel DDR4-2666 memory support and UHD 620 graphics.
The -9900KS drops into existing 300-series motherboards after a BIOS update, but draws enough power to make VRM selection an important factor in your motherboard purchase, especially if you plan on overclocking.
Luckily, most high-end Z390 motherboards already employ beefy power circuitry.
Swipe to scroll horizontally
| Active Cores | Base | 1 Core | 2 Cores | 3 Cores | 4 Cores | 5 Cores | 6 Cores | 7 Cores | 8 Cores |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Core i9-9900KS (GHz) | 4.0 | 5.0 | 5.0 | 5.0 | 5.0 | 5.0 | 5.0 | 5. 0 |
5.0 |
| Core i9-9900K (GHz) | 3.6 | 5.0 | 5.0 | 4.8 | 4.8 | 4.7 | 4.7 | 4.7 | 4.7 |
Higher clock speeds are the Core i9-9900KS’s real attraction. The -9900KS’s premium silicon supports a 4 GHz base clock, which is a 400 MHz improvement over the -9900K that leads to a beastly 127W TDP rating. That’s a big increase over the Core i9-9900K’s 95W TDP.
The -9900KS also delivers a 5 GHz Turbo Boost across all of its cores under any workload (AVX included), while the standard -9900K only boosts to 5 GHz on two cores. As expected of a higher-binned processor, Intel’s Core i9-9900KS should overclock higher than garden-variety -9900K chips, but the silicon lottery still applies (your mileage may vary). The higher quality silicon also affords tremendous power consumption advantages, which we’ll cover shortly.
Like the Core i9-9900K before it, the -9900KS comes with Intel’s translucent plastic dodecahedron packaging, doesn’t come with a bundled cooler, and features solder TIM (sTIM) to facilitate efficient thermal transfer from the die to the heatspreader. That helps with overclocking, which is fully enabled through the -9900KS’s unlocked ratio multiplier.
Like all ninth-gen chips, the -9900KS supports Intel’s free and simple-to-use Performance Optimizer (IPM) software tool that automatically tunes and overclocks your processor. As with all of Intel’s processors, overclocking voids your warranty unless you purchase a separate Performance Tuning Protection Plan that covers damage due to overclocking.
Surprisingly, Intel’s standard warranty only covers the Core i9-9900KS for one year, which stands in contrast to the standard three-year warranty period for the company’s other desktop processors. Intel chalks this shorter warranty period up to ‘limited availability,’ but its 40th-anniversary Core i7-8086K also sold in limited quantities and carried a three-year warranty.
Intel is transparent about the shorter warranty period, but you should take it into account.
Core i9-9900KS Boost Frequency and Thermals — 5 GHz, all the Time
Image 1 of 3
(Image credit: Future)(Image credit: Future)(Image credit: Future)
We turned the same amount of attention to the KS’s 5.0 GHz boost as we have with our series of AMD Ryzen 3000 boost clock tests. We put the chip through the wringer in a variety of workloads with different cooling solutions and found that, given adequate cooling, the chip sustains 5.0 GHz on all cores at stock settings, regardless of instruction type (AVX workloads included).
As outlined in the charts above, we stress-tested the chip with both a beefy custom watercooling loop with two 360mm radiators, and a Corsair h215i AIO watercooler. Both cooling solutions facilitated a consistent 5.024 GHz clock rate, but air cooling doesn’t seem to be a viable option. We paired the chip with a beefy Noctua NH-D15S air cooler, and at stock settings, the chip often bumped against its 100C thermal limit, which triggered clock throttling to protect the processor.
Contrary to some reports, the Core i9-9900KS will obviously not support overclocking with an air cooler.
Intel’s official spec sheet lists a 130W cooler as the entry-level solution. That fits well with the Core i9-9900KS’s 127W TDP, but Intel defines the TDP at base frequencies (PL1 — Power Level 1), and that value represents the amount of power the chip dissipates under load, not actual power consumption.
However, Intel’s chips shift into Power Level 2 (PL2) during boost activity, which the company defines as 25% over TDP (158.7 Watts for the KS) for a boost duration (Tau) of 28 seconds. Motherboard vendors often ignore boost duration limits, as we see with our own tests above, so you can expect very aggressive boost activity with most motherboards. Performance will vary based upon each motherboard vendors’ policy, but the parameters are configurable. Even with Solder TIM, thermal density presents challenges. If you plan on tuning, open- or closed-loop liquid cooling is a must.
Even then, the thermal output could limit your overclock
Core i9-9900KS Special Edition Binning
Every processor die is unique, even when harvested from the same wafer. Intel tests the individual dies from each wafer in a binning process to find the best and worst silicon, first sorting out die with defects for use in models that have fewer cores or deactivated graphics units. In some cases, dies are discarded altogether.
Even after the initial sorting, some die can deliver higher frequencies at a lower voltage than others, while most die require more voltage (which generates more heat) to deliver the same level of performance. Intel assigns each tier of chips into separate bins that dictate if the chip will find its way into downstream models that have lower frequency requirements, or if the chip will be reserved for high-end models, like the Core i9-9900K.
But like all chip manufacturers, even Intel’s fully-functional halo parts have some wiggle room in the specifications to account for silicon variation, meaning the chips are programmed for the lowest common denominator of the bin.
That leaves some chips that fall on the high end of the binning bell curve, or «thin bin» parts in Intel parlance, that find their way into the hands of lucky owners who win the silicon lottery.
Intel’s Core i9-9900KS represents the cream of its silicon crop. Intel says these rare chips offer what we would typically expect from an overclocked system, but at stock settings. Let’s see how that looks throughout our test suite.
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Paul Alcorn is the Deputy Managing Editor for Tom’s Hardware US. He writes news and reviews on CPUs, storage and enterprise hardware.
The 5 GHz Consumer Special
by Dr.
Ian Cutresson October 31, 2019 10:45 AM EST
- Posted in
- CPUs
- Intel
- 14nm
- Core i9
- Coffee Lake
- 14++
- 5.0 GHz
235 Comments
|
235 Comments
The Intel Core i9-9900KS ReviewTest Bed and SetupGoing for Power: How to Manage 5.0 GHz TurboCPU Performance: System TestsCPU Performance: Rendering TestsCPU Performance: Encoding TestsCPU Performance: Web and Legacy TestsGaming: World of Tanks enCoreGaming: Final Fantasy XVGaming: Shadow of WarGaming: Ashes Classic (DX12)Gaming: Strange Brigade (DX12, Vulkan)Gaming: Grand Theft Auto VGaming: Far Cry 5Gaming: F1 2018Conclusion: You Will Have To Be Quick
Intel likes 5.0 GHz processors. The one area where it claims a clear advantage over AMD is in its ability to drive the frequency of its popular 14nm process.
Earlier this week, we reviewed the Core i9-9990XE, which is a rare auction only CPU but with 14 cores at 5.0 GHz, built for the high-end desktop and high frequency trading market. Today we are looking at its smaller sibling, the Core i9-9900KS, built in numbers for the consumer market: eight cores at 5.0 GHz. But you’ll have to be quick, as Intel isn’t keeping this one around forever.
The Battle of the Bits
Every time a new processor comes to market, several questions get asked: how many cores, how fast, how much power? We’ve come through generations of promises of many GHz and many cores for little power, but right now we have an intense battle on our hands. The red team is taking advantage of a paradigm shift in computing with an advanced process node to offer many cores at a high power efficiency as well as at a good frequency. In the other corner is team blue, which has just equipped its arsenal by taking advantage of its most aggressive binning of 14nm yet, with the highest frequency processor for the consumer market, enabled across all eight cores and to hell with the power.
Intel’s argument here is fairly simple:
Do you want good all-around, or do you want the one with the fastest raw speed?
The Intel Core i9-9900KS is borne from the battle. In essence it looks like an overclocked Core i9-9900K, however by that logic everything is an overclocked version of something else. In order for Intel to give a piece of silicon off the manufacturing like the name of a Core i9-9900KS rather than a Core i9-9900K requires additional binning and validation, to the extent where it has taken several months from announcement just for Intel to be happy that they have enough chips for demand that will meet the warranty standards.
At the time Intel launched its 9th Generation Core desktop processors, like the Core i9-9900K, I perhaps would not have expected them to launch something like the Core i9-9900KS. It’s a big step up in the binning, and I’d be surprised if Intel gets one chip per wafer that hits this designation.
Intel announced the Core i9-9900KS after AMD had launched its Zen 2 Ryzen 3000 family, offering 12 cores with an all core turbo around 4.2 GHz and a +10% IPC advantage over Intel’s Skylake microarchitecture (and derivatives) for a lower price per core. In essence, Intel’s Core i9-9900K consumer flagship processor had a chip that was pretty close to it in performance with several more cores.
Intel is pushing the Core i9-9900KS as the ultimate consumer processor. With eight cores all running at 5.0 GHz, it is promising fast response and clock rates without any slowdown. Intel has many marketing arguments as to why the KS is the best processor on the market, especially when it comes to gaming: having a 5.0 GHz frequency keeps it top of the pile for gaming where frequency matters (low resolution), and many games don’t scale beyond four cores, let alone eight, and so the extra cores on the competition don’t really help here. It will be interesting to see where the 9900KS comes out in standard workload tests however, where cores can matter.
The Intel Core i9-9900KS now sits atop of Intel’s consumer product portfolio. The processor is the same 8-core die as the 9900K, unlocked with UHD 620 integrated graphics, but has a turbo of 5.0 GHz. All cores can turbo to 5.0 GHz. The length of the turbo will be motherboard dependent, however.
| Intel 9th Gen Core 8-Core Desktop CPUs | ||||||||
| AnandTech | Cores | Base Freq |
All-Core Turbo | Single Core Turbo Freq |
IGP | DDR4 | TDP | Price (1ku) |
| i9-9900KS | 8 / 16 | 4.0 GHz | 5.0 GHz | 5.0 GHz | UHD 630 | 2666 | 127 W | $513 |
| i9-9900K | 8 / 16 | 3. 6 GHz |
4.7 GHz | 5.0 GHz | UHD 630 | 2666 | 95 W | $488 |
| i9-9900KF | 8 / 16 | 3.6 GHz | 4.7 GHz | 5.0 GHz | — | 2666 | 95 W | $488 |
| i7-9700K | 8 / 8 | 3.6 GHz | 4.6 GHz | 4.9 GHz | UHD 630 | 2666 | 95 W | $374 |
| i7-9700KF | 8 / 8 | 3.6 GHz | 4.6 GHz | 4.9 GHz | — | 2666 | 95 W | $374 |
The Core i9-9900KS has an tray price of $513 (when purchased in 1000 unit bulk), which means we’re likely to see an on-shelf price of $529-$549, depending on if it gets packaged in its dodecanal box that our review sample came in.
Compared to the Core i9-9900K or Core i9-9900KF, the Core i9-9900KS extends its 5.0 GHz all through from when 2 cores are active to 8 cores are active. There is still no Turbo Boost Max 3.0 here, which means that all cores are guaranteed to hit this 5.0 GHz number. The TDP is 127 W, which is the maximum power consumption of the processor at its base frequency, 4.0 GHz. Above 4.0 GHz Intel does not state what sort of power to expect. We have this testing further in the review.
Competition
At present, Intel is competing against two major angles with the Core i9-9900KS. On the one side, it already has the Core i9-9900K, which if a user gets a good enough sample, can be overclocked to emulate the 9900KS. Intel does not offer warranty on an overclocked CPU, so there is something to be taken into account – the warranty on the Core i9-9900KS is only a limited 1 year warranty, rather than the standard 3 years it offers to the majority of its other parts, which perhaps indicates the lengths it went to for binning these processors.
From AMD, the current 12-core Ryzen 9 3900X that is already in the market has become a popular processor for users going onto 7nm and PCIe 4.0. It offers more PCIe lanes from the CPU to take advantage of PCIe storage and such, and there are a wealth of motherboards on the market that can take advantage of this processor. It also has an MSRP around the same price, at $499, although is often being sold for much higher due to availability.
AMD also has the 16-core Ryzen 9 3950X coming around the corner, promising slightly more performance than the 3900X, and aside from the $749 MSRP, it’s going to be an unknown on availability until it gets released in November.
| The Competition | ||||||
| Intel i9-9900KS | Intel i9-9900K | Anand Tech |
AMD 2920X |
AMD 3950X |
AMD 3900X |
AMD 3800X |
| 8 | 8 | Cores | 12 | 16 | 12 | 8 |
| 16 | 16 | Threads | 24 | 32 | 24 | 16 |
4. 0 |
3.6 | Base | 3.5 | 3.5 | 3.8 | 3.9 |
| 8 x 5.0 | 2 x 5.0 | Turbo | 4.3 | 4.7 | 4.6 | 4.5 |
| 2 x 2666 | 2 x 2666 | DDR4 | 4 x 2933 | 2 x 3200 | 2 x 3200 | 2 x 3200 |
| 3.0 x16 | 3.0 x16 | PCIe | 3.0 x64 | 4.0 x24 | 4.0 x24 | 4.0 x24 |
| 127 W | 95 W | TDP | 180 W | 105 W | 105 W | 105 W |
| $513 | $486 | Price | $649 | $749 | $499 | $399 |
It’s worth noting here that while Intel has committed to delivering ‘10nm class’ processors on the desktop in the future, it currently has made zero mention of exactly when this is going to happen.
Offering a limited edition all-core 5.0 GHz part like the Core i9-9900KS into the market is a brave thing indeed – it will have to provide something similar or better when it gets around to producing 10nm processors for this market. We saw this once before, when Intel launched Devil’s Canyon: super binned parts that ultimately ended up being faster than those that followed on an optimized process, because the binning aspect ended up being a large factor. Intel either has extreme confidence in its 10nm process for the desktop family, or doesn’t know what to expect.
This Review
In our review, we’re going to cover the usual benchmarking scenarios for a processor like this, as well as examine Intel’s relationship with turbo and how much a motherboard manufacturer can affect the performance.
Test Bed and Setup
The Intel Core i9-9900KS ReviewTest Bed and SetupGoing for Power: How to Manage 5.0 GHz TurboCPU Performance: System TestsCPU Performance: Rendering TestsCPU Performance: Encoding TestsCPU Performance: Web and Legacy TestsGaming: World of Tanks enCoreGaming: Final Fantasy XVGaming: Shadow of WarGaming: Ashes Classic (DX12)Gaming: Strange Brigade (DX12, Vulkan)Gaming: Grand Theft Auto VGaming: Far Cry 5Gaming: F1 2018Conclusion: You Will Have To Be Quick
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Test and review: Intel Core i9-9900KS — Skylake and 14nm at the limit
The new Intel Core i9-9900KS processor was announced on Monday, but it has only been available for sale since yesterday.
We received a sample and prepared a detailed test. With the Core i9-9900KS processor, Intel is trying to get the most out of the Skylake architecture and 14nm process technology. It is unlikely that modern technologies will be able to give more on the desktop. But the Core i9-9900KS is a limited edition, so the processor is different from ordinary CPUs. nine0004
We publish the test only today, one day after the official start of sales, which is due to a very difficult process of obtaining a sample. Intel was unable to send us a sample of the Core i9-9900KS, so we turned to Caseking for help.
Subscribe to the Hardwareluxx VKontakte and Facebook groups, as well as to our Telegram channel (@hardwareluxxrussia).
The technical specifications of the Core i9-9900KS are as follows:
| Cores/Threads | Base frequency / Boost | All Core Turbo | Memory | TDP | Price | |
| Core i9-9900KS | 8 / 16 | 4. 0 / 5.0 GHz |
5.0 GHz | DDR4-2666 | 127 W | 41.400 ₽ |
| Core i9-9900K | 8 / 16 | 3.6 / 5.0 GHz | 4.7 GHz | DDR4-2666 | 95 W | 32.800 ₽ |
| Ryzen 9 3900X | 12 / 24 | 3.8 / 4.6 GHz | — | DDR4-3200 | 105 W | 42.000 ₽ |
| Ryzen 7 3800X | 8 / 16 | 3.9/ 4.5 GHz | — | DDR4-3200 | 105 W | 22.400 ₽ |
Core i9-9900KS contains eight cores at a base frequency of 4 GHz, which can process 16 threads simultaneously. The Turbo frequency for one and all cores is 5 GHz. So far, the «regular» Core i9-9900K has only reached this frequency with a single core, and the Core i9-9990XE, also a prefetch result, increased the single-core Boost frequency to 5.1 GHz. A thermal package of 127 W has also been officially confirmed, although it is more theoretical.
nine0113
The Core i9-9900KS is based on the well known Skylake architecture. But Intel changed the Core i9-9900KS stepping from P0 to R0. The 9x00KF processors with disabled graphics, which are also already available on the market, also rely on the R0 stepping. The Core i9-9900KS processor is listed as «Family 6 Model 158 Stepping 13», which allows us to count on fixing vulnerabilities related to side-channel attacks. Judging by the documentation, Intel closed the Specter v2 vulnerability in hardware with the R0 stepping. The Meltdown v4, MSBDS (Fallout), MLPDS and MDSUM vulnerabilities are also hardware closed, which was previously only possible with a combination of updated MCU firmware and software patches. nine0005
The table below shows processor frequencies depending on the load on a different number of cores.
| Base frequency | 1C | 2C | 9000 nine0044 | ||||||
| Core i9-9900KS | 4. 0 GHz |
5.0 GHz | 5.0 GHz | 5.0 GHz | 5.0 GHz | 5.0 GHz | 5.0 GHz | 5.0 GHz | 5.0 GHz |
| Core i9-9900K | 3.6 GHz | 5.0 GHz | 5.0 GHz | 4.8 GHz | 4.8 GHz | 4.7 GHz | 4.7 GHz | 4.7 GHz | 4.7 GHz |
As you can see, the Core i9-9900KS always runs at 5 GHz, regardless of the number of loaded cores. The Core i9-9900K, on the other hand, hits 5GHz with only one or two active cores, otherwise clocking between 4.7 and 4.8GHz.
A few words about TDP
Thermal Design Power has already ceased to be an estimated characteristic of AMD or Intel in terms of power consumption. In the case of Intel processors, TDP corresponds to running at the base frequency. That is for Core i9-9900KS TDP 127W corresponds to 4.0GHz. But how high will the power consumption of all eight cores at 5 GHz be? It all depends on several factors.
If the system is designed only for TDP, then the processor will only be able to operate at the base frequency. If the cooling potential is higher, then the processor can achieve higher clock speeds, but the power consumption will also be higher.
Thus, in some situations, the Core i9-9900K can reach the same high clock speeds under load as the Core i9-9900KS and still consume the same amount of power. But the Core i9-9900KS takes advantage of Intel sampling, meaning the processor will reach Boost frequencies at lower voltages.
PL1, PL2 and BIOS features
But a lot here depends on motherboard manufacturers. The PL1 (Power Limit) level corresponds to TDP, that is, the power consumption of the processor at the base frequency. There is also a Power Limit 2 (PL2) level, which is defined as PL1 x 1.25 for 8 seconds. That is a Core i9 processorThe -9900KS can draw up to 159W of power for 8 seconds. However, many motherboard manufacturers ignore these specifications, keeping the PL2 bar for much longer.
There is also Tau (Turbo Time Parameter). He goes even further than PL2. We noted above that PL2 is set to PL1 x 1.25 for 8 seconds. And the 8 seconds data can be changed in the BIOS. Some options, such as Multi Core Enhancement (MCE), can also affect frequencies. Depending on the BIOS, certain power limits can be set — or they can be left open, that is, the processor can consume any amount of power, if the maximum voltage level and temperature allow. nine0005
Operation of parameters PL1, PL2 and Tau depends only on the BIOS. And different motherboard manufacturers may have different specifications. In fact, none of the manufacturers adhere to Intel’s reference specifications.
ASRock Z390 Taichi motherboard BIOS can set Multi Core Enhancement. There are also PL1, PL2 and Tau settings. We ran tests with different settings: ASRock’s recommended options, MCE, and Intel’s specifications.
nine
—
* We will explain the value of 28 with a little lower began to adhere to the specifications of Intel. If you disable MCE, but leave PL1, PL2, and Tau set to automatic, the Core i9-9900KS processor can run at a maximum power consumption of 4.096 W — this is, of course, a theoretical value that simply corresponds to the absence of any power restrictions on the socket. With active MCE level set to 159Tue, time is also unlimited. The same is true for the Core i9-9900K processor, albeit with lower PL1, PL2 and Tau values.
We were a bit surprised by the two different specifications that Intel published for PL1, PL2 and Tau. In document 9th Generation Intel Core Processor Families Datasheet, Volume 1 of 2 (PDF), Intel mentions 8-core processors with a TDP of 95W, the same Core i9-9900K.
And here PL1, PL2 and Tau are given correctly.
But another document, which is only available to us as a screenshot, also shows 8-core processors with a TDP of 127W. These include the Core i9-9900KS, and the Tau value of 28 s is already indicated here. Interestingly, the time of 28 s is now declared for 95 W processors as well. We are currently discussing this issue with Intel to clarify which of the two specifications is official.
Update:
As it turns out, the declared 8 s for Tau is a mistake. The Tau period has been defined as 28 s for K processors for at least two generations. Unless an error with a lost two crept into the Intel documentation, and it was repeated from generation to generation. Meanwhile, Intel gave an official answer:
«Intel’s base configuration recommendation is PL2 = PL1 * 1.25 and Tau = 28 seconds. However, our customers are allowed to customize these values within specification to better align with their board capabilities.
We allow our customers to configure up to infinite Tau and high PL2 in support of the Core i9-9900KS’s power dissipation during all core turbo when running complex workloads. Our customers can choose power delivery and thermal solutions as they see fit to meet their cost targets.» nine0339
Therefore, we will repeat the tests of the Core i9-9900KS with the declared time Tau = 28 s and the levels PL1 127 W or PL2 159 W, after which we will update the charts.
<>Test and review: Intel Core i9-9900KS — Skylake and 14nm at the limit
Intel Core i9-9900KS | Test Configuration
Intel Core i9-9900KS Processor Review: GHz vs. Ryzen
AMD is putting increasing pressure on Intel in the desktop processor segment. In order not to finally lose to a competitor, Intel decided to strike back — update the Intel Core i9-9900K to 9900KS. The result was a new overclocked eight-core Core i9-9900KS, which exactly gave out 5.0 GHz on all cores.
This is the only achievement of the new processor.
Intel gets out as best it can, but without technological breakthroughs, instead of a new product family, it offers temporary options in the form of «flagship» processors. No desktop 10nm processor chips are expected in the near future, and while we’ve heard rumors of 10-core Comet Lake processors this year, the company will have to hold onto the octa-core desktop lineup for now. nineThe 900KS has clocked up to 5 GHz, but by and large this is not enough to completely defeat the competition.
From the Core i9-9900KS, they tried to blind the answer to the third generation Ryzen. To soften the shock of AMD’s new lineup, Intel made an announcement about the upcoming release of this processor in early June, just a few days before the announcement of the Ryzen 3000, and in reality, the Core i9-9900KS reached the market only a few months later — in November. At the same time, there is nothing in it, because of which the Core i9-9900KS should have been spoken about so much in advance, it is just a banal novelty, albeit a high-end novelty needed by Intel for marketing purposes.
Outside of 1080p gaming, it’s hard to list very many price/performance wins for Intel at the moment. nine0005
The ninth generation of Intel Core desktop processors was addressed in many respects to gamers, and this formula has not changed with the release of the Intel Core i9-9900KS. The new processor is based on the Core i9-9900K and also has 8 cores capable of processing up to 16 threads simultaneously. However, it is immediately worth noting that even with such a solution, Intel is inferior to Ryzen 9, which have 12 or even 16 cores, in tough competition. For this reason, the real rivals of the novelty are AMD Ryzen 93900X.
Produced by the Core i9-9900KS using the same 14nm++ process technology and equipped with a metal heat spreader cover that is soldered to the chip. According to Intel, the TDP of the new processor is 127W, which is noticeably higher than its predecessor (95W). However, this is only a theoretical figure. The fact is that the processor will require much more energy if you disable the TDP limit in UEFI.
Also, this means that an efficient cooling system should be used with the new processor, most likely the AiO 280.
Intel’s full response to Ryzen 3000 will be seen pretty soon. 10-core Comet Lake desktop processors won’t be available until mid-2020 at the earliest.
Intel says of the Core i9-9900KS, «Based on the Core i9-9900K, we’ve made the world’s best gaming processor even better.» Compared to the Intel Core i9-9900K, the new Intel Core i9-9900KS wins by a narrow margin, with performance gains ranging from 2 to 6%. Single-threaded and multi-threaded performance is better, despite the fact that even last year’s Intel Core i9The -9900K was capable of hitting 5GHz, but if we consider the AMD Ryzen 9 3900X as a rival to the , then the Intel Core i9-9900KS loses significantly.
The manufacturer emphasizes the exclusivity of the Core i9-9900KS by saying that in order to manufacture such CPUs, he has to use a special procedure for selecting semiconductor crystals, which is why the circulation of such processors is quite small. What specific number of «special» chips will be put on the market is not reported, but you can be sure to buy a Core i9-9900KS in the store will be problematic. This is partly due to the fact that the markup for the Special Edition label and 5 GHz frequency is not so high and cannot become a significant barrier for buyers. The recommended cost of the Core i9-9900KS is $513, just $25 more than the price of the regular Core i9-9900K. The
Core i9-9900KS has become the fifth member of the Coffee Lake Refresh family to receive model number 9900. Its brothers have always offered eight cores with support for Hyper-Threading technology and had a 16 MB L3 cache, but differed in thermal package, overclocking capabilities, target frequencies and the presence or absence of an integrated graphics core. In Core i9-9900KS, as in the crown of the entire evolution of the ninth generation Core, all these characteristics are turned to the maximum values, but when compared with the indicators of previously released related processors, the formal specifications of the Core i9-9900KS are by no means amazing.
|
Model |
Cores — Threads |
Base frequency |
Turbo 1/2/4/6/8 cores |
L3 cache |
Graphics |
TDP |
Start price |
|
Intel Core i9-9900KS |
8-16 |
4.0 GHz |
5.0/5.0/5.0/5.0/5.0 GHz |
16 MB |
UHD 630 |
127W |
$513 |
|
Intel Core i9-9900K |
8-16 |
3.6 GHz |
5. |
16 MB |
UHD 630 |
95 W |
$488 |
|
Intel Core i7-9700K |
8-8 |
3.6 GHz |
4.9/4.8/4.7/4.6/4.6 GHz |
12 MB |
UHD 630 |
95 W |
$374 |
|
Intel Core i5-9600K |
6-6 |
3.7 GHz |
4.6/4.5/4.4/4.3/-GHz |
9 MB |
UHD 630 |
95 W |
$262 |
0/5.0/4.8/4.7/4.7 GHz As you can see, the Core i9-9900KS always runs at 5 GHz, regardless of the number of loaded cores.
|
Base frequency, MHz |
Maximum frequency in turbo mode, MHz |
||||||||
|
8 cores |
7 cores |
6 cores |
5 cores |
4 cores |
3 cores |
2 cores |
1 core |
||
|
Core i9-9900KS nine0019 |
4. |
5.0 |
5.0 |
5.0 |
5.0 |
5.0 |
5.0 |
5.0 |
5.0 |
|
Core i9-9900K |
nine0002 3.6 |
4.7 |
4.7 |
4.7 |
4.8 |
4.8 |
4.9 |
5.0 |
5.0 |
|
Core i9-9900KF |
3.6 |
4.7 |
4.7 |
4.7 |
nine0002 4.8 |
4.8 |
4.9 |
5.0 |
5.0 |
|
Core i9-9900 |
3. |
4.6 |
4.7 |
4.7 |
4.8 |
4.8 |
4.9 |
5.0 |
5.0 |
|
Core i9-9900T |
2.1 |
3.6 |
3.8 |
3.9 |
4.0 |
4.1 |
4.2 |
4.3 |
4.4 |
0 
1 However, in reality, all this does not mean at all that choosing the Core i9-9900KS for your system will get you 5.0 GHz under any load. Do not forget that turbo frequencies are the maximum auto overclocking that is possible, but not guaranteed, and the base frequency is 4.0 GHz. Turbo Boost 2.0 technology automatically increases the CPU frequency not just based on the number of working cores, but also taking into account other parameters, in particular the nature of the load and, most importantly, the power consumption generated by it.
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But with the Core i9-9900KS, this trick fails with a creak. Running at 5.0 GHz, this processor generates so much heat that only select cooling systems can handle it.
Considering how the Core i9-9900KS heats up when operating in the «nominal» mode at a frequency of 5.0 GHz, it would be strange to expect some feats from it in the overclocking field.
In other words, the processor turned out to be without any overclocking potential at all, 5.0 — 5.2 GHz is its ceiling. nine0005
However, one should not be surprised at all about this. We are dealing with a CPU already pre-overclocked at the factory, which was chosen among the regular Core i9-9900K precisely on the principle of performance at a frequency of 5.0 GHz.
To sum it up, AMD broke new ground with the release of a new generation of Ryzen desktops and Intel had to retaliate. Unfortunately, in the form of a response, we received only an enhanced version of the Core i9-9900K. You and I will have to keep waiting for the new architecture and the transition to 10nm, which keeps getting delayed and delayed.